Amazon deforestation

Brazilian government presented a draft for a plan to fight and adapt to global warming. In the preliminary document, the government doesn’t set goals for carbon emissions reduction, but says by 2015 deforestation could stop in the Amazon. More specifically, that they’ll be planting more trees than the ones being cut down.

Just a few days after the launch, new figures released by the Brazilian National Research Institute say deforestation went up by 134% from July to August, and that the 756 kilometers lost represent 228% more than the figures from the same month last year. The annual accumulation in 2008 is 64% more than the 12 months last year.

According to BBC Mundo and Abril, deforestation accounts for 75 to 80% of Brazilian emissions, and one of the main goals of this draft plan is to target this problem.

The reforestation program includes increasing the area of planted forest from 5.5 million hectares to 11 million by 2015, 2 million of which have to be native species and the rest forest for commercial use.

According to Environmental Minister, if this is done, by 2015 the government would be planting more trees than the ones being cut down. Of course this statement was done a few days before the new figures for deforestation i

n the Amazon were released, which threw an alarming 134% monthly increase.